Ashley Saunders

Ashley Saunders

M.Sc., R.SLP
Interim Director,

Speech-Language Pathologist,

FRM-Affiliated Clinical Educator

Ashley began working as a Speech-Language Pathologist for the Institute for Stuttering Treatment and Research (ISTAR) in 2017. She completed her Masters of Science in Education at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York in 2017. She currently serves as ISTAR's Interim Director.

While completing her graduate coursework at The College of Saint Rose, Ashley worked as a research assistant under a distinguished teaching professor in early language development, Dr. Robert Owen, and presented at the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association convention and the New York State Speech-Language and Hearing Association convention.

Ashley has clinical experience working with clients ranging from preschool-age to adulthood with a wide variety of communication impairments and disorders. At ISTAR, Ashley primarily works with children and teens who stutter, as well as with individuals in the Communication Improvement Program (CIP).

Since joining the team, Ashley has become a Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine Affiliated Clinical Educator and has trained and supervised many graduate students during their clinical placements at ISTAR from the University of Alberta, University of Toronto, and The University of Western Ontario.

Ashley has completed specialized training or holds certifications in the following areas:

  • Lidcombe Program for preschool and school-age children
  • The Comprehensive Stuttering Program (CSP)
  • The Camperdown Program
  • Palin Parent-Child Interaction Therapy for Early Childhood Stuttering (Palin PCI)
  • Visualizing and Verbalizing for Comprehension and Thinking - The Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes program for imagery development to support expressive and receptive language skills
  • Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets (PROMPT) – Level 1
  • Solution Focused Brief Therapy

Further, Ashley’s areas of research interests include:

  • Executive functioning development in children who stutter.
  • Support group affiliation and treatment preferences for adults who stutter.
  • The efficacy of the Comprehensive Stuttering Program to treat school-aged children who stutter.